Posted: 2026-03-19

WAY too many people try to map hypersomnia onto their own, normal and healthy experience of being tired and resting.

Similar to the opposite condition, hypersomnia does not have a single thing to do with ordinary "tiredness", and the comparison is extremely offensive.

This is the reality: it's a waking death. Lights out for most of a day, whether you like it or not, and the "awake" periods are more like a stupor. It's closer to unconsciousness than sleep.

The following is a mashup of multiple episodes, but all of it really happened. The quotes are all real too.

Hypersomnia

Your housemate asks what's wrong.

"I'm sleeping 18 hours a night."

"I'm so jealous!"

If you weren't so exhausted you would have seriously considered punching him in the face. You take a few no-doze and roll back into bed around midday.

You regain consciousness. It's dark outside. You lie there for a long time (you don't know how long) before you're able to get up. You roll out of bed, pour a glass of water and drink it, and miraculously find a packet of potato chips and manage to tear it open. You lie down again.

You regain consciousness as your mum calls you. It's blazing noon. She asks how your day went. You say you slept for 18 hours. She cheerfully says "sounds like you needed it!" No. No you did not need it. Nobody needs to sleep that much. But you don't have the energy to argue, so you just say goodbye and pass out again.

You regain consciousness because your stomach is panging. The sun is just starting to come up. You are barely conscious, but your stomach is actively painful. You notice the packet of potato chips next to your bed. As you eat them, you barely notice that they're stale, but you do notice that one of your teeth is not shaped how it used to be. (You've barely been drinking or eating, and your mouth is dry from the inactivity, so you have a bunch of new cavities, but you won't know that until later in the year because you are a LONG way from a dental exam being possible)

You regain consciousness. The sun is setting. Your housemate says "I'm sick of you sleeping all the time." Your response is not much more than a grunt. "Just drink heaps of coffee." Is a healthy person physically capable of being unconscious for such long stretches...? Your thighs are itchy. You smash a straight litre of energy drinks and lie down again.

You regain consciousness because your ex's best friend calls you. You vaguely slur "this is not a good time." She screams "WELL YOU'LL HAVE TO FUCKING MAKE IT A GOOD TIME," and continues to lay into you until you pass out again. You don't catch a single word.

You regain consciousness. It's the dead of night. Your thighs are really itchy (It's impetigo, because you haven't showered in weeks, but you won't know that until many months later). Your stomach is SCREAMING at you, so you order UberEats. You take two bites and immediately start throwing up, because you haven't eaten properly in a week. Finding a bucket is hard. You get about half of your meal down and pretty much fall face-first into it.

You regain consciousness because your housemate is shaking you awake. You vaguely remember that you were supposed to pay your share of bills at some point. Your housemate wants to know how your efforts to find a job go. You say you're sleeping 18 hours a night and can't.

He says:

"...and whose fault is that?"

🔗 Checkin

Written: 2026-03-19

Written on: 7.5mg olanzapine since 2025-11-11; taken continuously since 2006

Cognitive capacity: improving! - estimate 15% of brain and climbing

You should not expect to learn the cause of this condition, because it can only be examined and treated after it has receded. If it resolves on its own, you'll never know what caused it.